I’m looking for a test! I know the topic (like, personality) but I
don’t know the name of a specific test. Where should I start?

There could be hundreds of tests out there -- depending on the
people you want to assess and what you want to learn about them.

Especially f you are undertaking a major project, your first step is to conduct
a thorough literature review (search for books and journal articles) about
testing the specific persons, phenomena, or variables that interest you. You
can use the CAT
(Penn State’s library catalog), Google Book Search,
PsycINFO, Google Scholar,
and other
databases for that purpose. The next
step is to find basic information about available tests, and narrow yourself down to a few that are really worth your time and
money.

There are several resources that can quickly provide test
questions. For instance, if you are working on a simple assignment and just
about ANY test will help, try:

MCPR provides copies of hundreds of tests, mostly derived from
scholarly journal articles. Each entry includes reliability and validity
information as well as the questions--just what you need for some professors'
assignments. The only drawback to MCPR is that you generally will NOT
find popular commercialized tests such as the Myers-Briggs personality test
here. When using MCPR, be sure to consult the various tables of contents.

·PsycTESTS.Available online for Penn
State faculty, staff, and students.

PsycTESTS provides copies of thousands of tests derived
from scholarly journal articles. Each test starts with a cover-page that
indicates the author(s), original source, and a statement regarding whether the
authors give permission for others to use their test. Unfortunately most do not
include reliability or validity information.

If you aren't satisfied with the MCPR and PsycTESTS, or you want to learn about other tests that are
commonly used, there are additional sources you can search. HOWEVER, these do
NOT provide copies of tests. Instead, they give you basic information such as
the test name, purpose, population, scoring system, validity, price, and
publisher:

·Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY, multiple volumes), published by the Buros Institute (Lincoln: University of Nebraska,
1938-present. Call number REF BF431.M45). Also available online
for Penn State faculty, staff, and students.

·Test Critiques
(Austin, TX: Pro-Ed, 1984-present).Available in print at Penn State Harrisburg
Library, call number REF BF176.T419. Similar to Tests: A
Comprehensive Reference, but provides much more detail.

·Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI).Available online for
Penn State faculty, staff, and students.

If you find a helpful test in the MMY, Tests, Test
Critiques, or HaPI, you must take steps to
get a copy of that test. See the information on contacting test authors/publishers and other
sections below.

Yes. University researchers, nonprofit organizations, government
agencies, consultants, and others sometimes develop their own instruments. If
they have published a journal article, research paper, book, or web page about
their research, a copy of the testing instrument might be included in the text
or in an appendix.

So how do you search for this stuff?

First, use a “directory” of tests published in books and journal
articles:

·One free, online source is Helen Hough’s Tests and
Measures in the Social Sciences, available on the University of
Texas at Arlington’s site. This will refer you to more than 14,000 tests
published in more than 130 different books. After you find a citation to a
book, you can check Penn State's CAT (book catalog) to see if a Penn State
library owns it. Other librarians have compiled similar sites – for instance,
see Mark Stover’/San Diego State University’s SDSU Test Finder and the
University of South Florida’s Tests and
Measures Collection.

·Another resource is the Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental
Measures (9 volumes, Washington, DC: APA, 1974-present). This directory
lists tests and instruments printed in about 35 of the top Psychology journals.
Penn State Harrisburg is missing volumes 5 and 7, but we have the others at
call number REF BF431.G625. University Park has all volumes, including the most
current one. After you find a citation in the Directory, you can use
Penn State's “E-Journals” list (available on the library’s home page)
and other resources to get a copy of the journal article.

If you don't find what you need on Helen Hough's web site or in
the Directory, try other books, ETS, Google, and other libraries:

·Find a book on psychological assessment for the topic or
population that interests you.

oBooks on testing often
have words like “assessment,” “instruments,” “measurement,” “researching,”
“scaling,” or “testing” in the titles, chapter titles, subject headings, or
description.

§Type in broad keywords (like “personality,” or “women,” or
“intelligence”)

§Add words like “assessment” or “measurement” to your search.

§Remember to “truncate” your search so that the catalog will find
all forms of the root word. For instance, a CAT search for assess$ will find
books that have “assessment” or “assessing” in the title. In most other
databases, the truncation sign is either a question mark (?) or a star (*).

·Try ETS.
ETS, the same company that developed the SAT and the GRE, has one of the
largest libraries of testing instruments. Its online library catalog, TestLink, lists more than 25,000 tests.
You can search TestLink by test author and title, and
even purchase some tests directly from ETS.

·Google. If
you are looking for a SPECIFIC test (you know the name of the test and the name
of the person or company that created it), you might be able to find a copy on
the Internet. This is especially true for tests that were created or are used
by government agencies.

oIf the author teaches at
a university, you can visit the university’s web page. You may be able to find
his or her contact information in a campus “directory,” lists of “faculty,” or
on the web page for his/her academic department.

oIf you aren’t getting
anywhere by searching the author’s name in Google.com, use Google Scholar.
This limits your search to “scholarly” papers, articles, and web sites.

oNOTE: be careful when
using Google to look for "personality tests" or other categories of
instruments. Remember, just about anyone can create a web page, and Google has
no mechanism for sorting out reputable tests from all the junk that is out
there!

·Look in the catalog of a library that has a large test collection.
One helpful resource is the Directory of Test Collections in Academic,
Professional, and Research Libraries, by the Education and Behavioral
Sciences section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (Chicago:
American Library Association, 2001, call number REF LB3051.D564 2001). This
will tell you the self-reported strengths and weaknesses of other test
collections in libraries throughout the United States, as well as whether the
collections are open to the public. Unfortunately, no Pennsylvania libraries
are listed in this directory!

If you are interested in people’s attitudes toward education,
health, race, or other social issues, Penn State subscribes to several
databases of public opinion polls. Polls often measure views about
controversial current issues, such as gay marriage or the war in Iraq. You can
find them in the “Databases” list on the library’s home page.
We currently subscribe to:

·However, BEWARE that these databases contain poll questions and
results going back to the 1930s, as well as recent surveys. Also, these
databases do not provide information about whether the questions were valid or
well-designed.

Test instruments can be tricky to find. Here are the most common
problems:

Some tests have abbreviations,
popular names, and “official” or spelled-out names. For instance, one
well-known test is referred to as the “MBTI,” “Myers-Briggs,” or the
“Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.” Try all these names in your searches.

·If you are getting TOO FEW results in your search, try related
words. For instance, if you’d like to measure problem-solving ability in 16 to
21-year olds, try similar words like adolescents, or high school, or teenagers.
Or, look for broader terms than “problem solving ability” (like intelligence).

·If you’re using a database, you’re finding TOO MANY results, and
many of them seem irrelevant, the database might be searching the “full record”
of each test (including every word mentioned in the description, critique, and
bibliography!). If you are using MMY or HaPI
online, try clicking on drop-down options (such as "Title" or
"Author") to the right of the search boxes to search specific parts
of each record.

·Pay attention to ANY clues you find regarding the test, its
author, or its publisher. Take note of the corporation or university where the
author works (including the name of the university and the academic
department); the names of EVERY author who was involved in the development of
the test; and the names, dates, and alternative versions of the test.

If you find a test in the MMY, a library book, or journal
article, you can sometimes find the test author's "institutional
affiliation," e-mail address, or other contact information quite easily:

·Within a large reference book, the author’s institution or e-mail
address may appear within the text, in an entry or section dealing with the
specific test

·In other types of books, it is sometimes on the back pages or book
jacket

·In a journal article, it may be on the first or last page

If the information isn't available or is outdated, you can often
locate the author by using a search engine like Google.

Be aware that contact information of test authors may be
"buried" online in faculty, corporate, or governmental web pages.

·If you aren't finding the author by searching Google, BUT you know
where he or she works, you can visit the university's or company's home page,
find an online directory of faculty or employees, and search that.

If your test is distributed by a publisher, it can be tough to
find the current publisher, especially for older tests. This is because smaller
publishing companies are constantly being bought out by larger corporations.
Here are some of the well-known publishers and their web sites:

In sources like MMY, reviewers often discuss the “validity”
of tests, rather than whether tests are “good” or “bad.”

According to the Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research
Methods, validity is “the extent to which any measuring instrument measures
what it is intended to measure.” Validity is an important indication of whether
a test will be useful.

BUT as the Sage Encyclopedia also explains, validity not
only depends on the instrument itself, but HOW YOU USE the instrument. Even if
a test is generally considered to be “valid,” it might not be applicable to the
particular group, behavior, or situation you are trying to study (Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004, p. 1171).

At this point, the library doesn’t have staff with expertise to
recommend or evaluate tests. It really depends on your project. So, contact
your professor.

No. For one thing, some tests can only be purchased, administered,
or interpreted by a licensed or certified professional. Even if you are
qualified to administer the test, there are a lot of other things you may need
to do first. These include, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

·Talking with your professor about whether the instrument is suitable for
your project

·Getting any training or certification that is required to
administer the test properly

·Recruiting test subjects in a proper and ethical manner

·Finding an appropriate environment to test them

·Making arrangements for storing and analyzing your data.

·And more!!!

Always consult with your professor about the design of your
research project, BEFORE you undertake it.

Why do I have to pay a company called Pearson Assessment for copies
of the “Beck Depression Inventory,” (created by Aaron T. Beck)?

A test’s design is a piece of intellectual PROPERTY, analogous in
some ways to how a car is personal property. General Motors owns a Chevy truck
until the truck is sold to a dealership then sold to you. In a similar way, the
person or company which creates the test OWNS the
test, until he/she/it sells it to someone else.

Taking this example a step further, GM can manufacture a car model
and sell the same car to numerous people for a certain price. Similarly,
whoever owns the test design can choose to “publish” it by printing and selling
copies.

Even if you see a car parked on the street, you still have to ask
the owner whether you can drive it. Similarly with a test, if you see it in a
book, journal, or on the Internet, you still have to GET PERMISSION to use it
on clients or research subjects. A nice person may let you use his or her car
for free, but companies like Budget or Enterprise make you pay rental fees.
Similarly, many test publishers will make you pay to use their tests.

In general, no. Official manuals are often expensive. Also,
because they are often used for diagnostic purposes, they should only be used
by professionals. However, some commercial publishers have released “how to”
guides and other information about popular tests. You can find some in the CAT,
Penn State’s library catalog.

One useful series of books is Wiley’s Essentials of… , edited by Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen
L. Kaufman. These provide notes on administering, scoring, interpretation, and
reporting of various tests. Penn State has many of the older ones in print,
while newer ones are available online via the CAT (library catalog):

If Penn State doesn’t have a manual for your test, another option
is to check WorldCat (available
online to Penn State faculty, staff, and students). WorldCat
is a database of college and public libraries throughout the world.

·If you find a manual in WorldCat, click on
its title

·Then, you’ll see links to a list of “Libraries Worldwide"
that own the item and a link to “Request the Item via ILL”

·After you log in and fill out the request form, Penn State’s
Interlibrary Loan team will contact the other libraries and (hopefully) borrow
a copy for you

·The book or manual will be delivered to the circulation desk at the
first floor of the library

·NOTE: This option is usually a “last resort.” Many libraries do
not loan test manuals because they are very expensive. Also, it may take
several weeks for the manual to arrive, depending on how quickly the other
library acts upon your request

·Comprehending Test Manuals: A Guide and Workbook, by Ann Corwin Silverlake
(Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing, 1999). Call number BF176.S55 1999. If you need to improve your
skills at determining test reliability, validity, or detecting bias, this is
for you. Pryczak books provide word problems for you
to get some practice.

·Handbook of Psychology: Volume 10, Assessment Psychology, edited by John R. Graham and Jack A. Naglieri (New York: Wiley, 2013). Call
number BF121.H213 2013 v.10. This volume is divided into three parts.
Part one covers general topics relating to assessment, such as bias,
computerization, and ethical issues. Part two deals with assessment in various
settings, such as correctional institutions, geriatric settings, and schools.
Part three concerns methodological issues, such as in intellectual functioning
or psychopathology. Each article is 20-30 pages long, and a solid introduction
to the topic.

Penn State University Libraries (including Harrisburg) have
numerous books that can coach you in designing instruments.

If you’ve never worked with tests and you want an easy-to-read
introduction, try Neil Salkind’sTests and
Measurements for People Who Think They Hate Tests and Measurements (Sage,
2005. Call number LB3051.S243 2006).

Another good book is Theresa J.B. Kline’s Psychological Testing:
A Practical Approach to Design and Evaluation (Sage, 2005. Call number BF176.K583 2005).

You can find other books in the CAT,
Penn State's library catalog, by searching for keywords like:

The library doesn’t provide this type of assistance. However,
there are other Penn State departments that can help. Try these:

·Penn State Harrisburg has aCenter for Survey
Research that provides limited, free service to students. See its
web page for more information.

·The Statistical Consulting Center at University
Park offers some assistance in statistical analysis. It provides two short term
consultations at no charge, one at the design stage and one at the analysis
stage of Master’s research. Instead of traveling to University Park, you may be
able to receive consultation on the phone; this would primarily depend on your
questions and needs related to your research. Each consultation consists of two
meetings with a statistics graduate student enrolled in the center’s Consulting
Practicum. You can call the center at (814) 863-0281 or request a consultation. Please make sure that
you check the “short-term consultation” box. “Long-term consultation” is not
free.

Yes. Penn State, government agencies, and professional
organizations all have rules and guidelines for psychological research. Here
are SOME (BUT NOT ALL):

·Penn State REQUIRES you to take a training session, pass a test,
and get university approval for your project BEFORE you do research using human
participants. For more information, see the training
offerings at Penn State’s Office for Research Protections

·Pennsylvania has a State Board of Psychology which licenses
psychologists and regulates practice in our state. Read Pennsylvania’s Professional
Psychologists Practice Act (63 Pennsylvania Statutes §§ 1201-1218) and Regulations
of the State Board of Psychology, (49 Pennsylvania Code, Chapter 41)

·APA and the American Educational Research Association have Standards
for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, 1999. Call
number LB3051.A683 1999). For more information about APA’s activities,
see the APA Science Directorate’s page on testing

If you want to follow in the footsteps of Harry Harlow, Stanley
Milgram, or Philip Zimbardo, Penn State Harrisburg Library has books that can
help. Try these resources first, since each describes multiple experiments:

You can also search for books or journal articles about the PERSON
who initially conducted the experiment or made it famous. You might be able to
find information ABOUT the person (biography), or something he or she WROTE.
Here are some good resources:

·CAT,
the library catalog.
This is a searchable list of all the books Penn State University Libraries own.
You can type in a person’s name (last name, first name) and choose the “author”
search (to find books he or she wrote). Or, you can choose “subject” to find
books written about that person.

Ask a librarian and/or your professor for help. A librarian will
help you find information using tools in the Library, on the Internet, and
other resources. On the other hand, you and your professor should work together
in deciding which tests are most relevant to your research.